Ashtakavarga — Construction
The Aṣṭakavarga is consists of 8 Vargas of 8 bodies, including 7 Grahas and 1 Lagna, each of which is called a Bhinnāṣṭakavarga. It starts with building the Bhinnāṣṭakavargas of the 8 bodies and thereafter consolidating them into Sarvāṣṭakavarga or Samudāyāṣṭakavarga. Samudāya means a group or community and the name implies that the Aṣṭakavarga of the 8 bodies are grouped together. Some scholars advise consolidating only the 7 bodies from Sūrya to Śani, leaving out Lagna from the picture. We shall have a closer look into this in the relevant section. In the Sarvāṣṭakavarga the Rekhās of the 12 Rāśis are consolidated across the eight individual Aṣṭakavargas. For instance, in Meṣa Rāśi, the Rekhās are 5 in Sūrya’s Bhinnāṣṭakavarga, 4 in Candra’s, 3 in Maṅgala’s, 4 in Budha’s, 6 in Bṛhaspati’s, 5 in Śukra’s, 4 in Śani’s and 3 in Lagnas. This implies that Meṣa Rāśi in the Sarvāṣṭakavarga must contain 5 + 4 + 3 + 4 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 = 34. Therefore, Mesa Rāśi in Sarvāṣṭakavarga contains 34 Rekhās. If we keep the Lagna out of the picture as some scholars advise, then the Rekhās are 31. In the forthcoming section we shall understand the construction of the Bhinnāṣṭakavarga, Samudāyāṣṭakavarga and also their reductions through the steps called the Trikoṇa and Ekādhipatya Śodhana. We must realize that number of great Ācāryas and Maharṣis have written about this important tool and there are some differences in their opinions as well. These differences are explained after covering the topics of construction of Bhinnāṣṭakavarga, Samudāyāṣṭakavarga and the Śodhanas. My focus is to explain the views of Maharṣi Parāśara, while also touching the points narrated by other scholars. While not covering each and every aspect of this tool, my objective is to give a holistic view of this tool so that the reader becomes aware of the key ideas and possibilities.
BPHS 66.70–72. To identify the Śubha and Aśubha Bhāvas in the Aṣṭakavarga a chart should be prepared with 14 horizontal lines and 10 vertical lines. The form of the chart so prepared will consist of 117 apartments. In this chart in the first line incorporates the names of the seven Grahas and Lagna. In the first column write the numbers of all the 12 Bhāvas. After this mark dots under the Graha and against the Karaṇaprada Bhāvas. By doing so the Karaṇaprada Bhāvas of all the 8 Grahas, including Lagna, will become known clearly and whenever the Aṣṭakavarga Graha will pass in transit the Karaṇaprada Bhāvas, he shall yield Aśubha results. In his transit to other Bhāvas he would give favourable effects.
Maharṣi Parāśara advises that, to identify the Śubha and Aśubha Bhāvas in a Kuṇḍalī through Aṣṭakavarga, a tabular chart must be prepared with 14 horizontal and 10 vertical lines. In the first row, write the names of the 7 Grahas, Sūrya to Śani and the Lagna. In the 1st column, write the 12 Bhāvas. These gives us 13 rows * 9 columns = 117 cells. The table as per Maharṣi’s advice is shown below, where the figures in the tables are for a native born in Dhanu Lagna (1 = Dhanu), in which the Grahas are placed in the Bhāvas in the following manner — 3H = Bṛhaspati, 6H= Ketu, 7H = Śani. 8H = Śukra, 9H = Sūrya, Budha, Maṅgala, 12H = Candra, Rāhu. Maharṣi advises us to construct the table for the Karaṇa (cipher) first to identify the Aśubha Gocara. We notice that there are maximum of 382 Karaṇas in the Karaṇa Aṣṭakavarga. Likewise, we can construct the Rekhā Aṣṭakavarga, that has maximum of 386 Rekhās. The Maharṣi states that when a Graha transits a Rāśi that has high Karaṇa, untoward results can be expected pertaining to the Kārakatvas of the concerned Graha. In the table below, we notice that in Sūrya’s Aṣṭakavarga, Bhāva 8, 9, 11 and 12 has 5 Karaṇas. This implies that when Sūrya passes through these Rāśis, the native shall experience difficult times. The native in this example is born in Dhanu Lagna, which means that, when Sūrya is in Karka (8), Siṅha (9), Tulā (11) or Vṛścika (12), the months shall be difficult. Now a days, hardly anyone constructs a Karaṇa Aṣṭakavarga, although as per Maharṣi Parāśara’s advise, this is the first Aṣṭakavarga that we must construct. One of the reasons is that there are not many rules available for interpretation of these Aṣṭakavargas. Furthermore, the Karaṇa Aṣṭakavarga can be derived from the Rekhā Aṣṭakavarga by subtracting the Rekhās from 8.
Like the Karaṇa table, we also construct the Rekhā table, which is straightforward. In a cell, the maximum values of Karaṇa + Rekhā is 8 because there are 8 contributors (Sūrya to Śani and Lagna). Therefore, the Rekhā tables can be derived by subtracting the Karaṇa figures from 8 and vice versa. The total of Karaṇa Aṣṭakavarga is 382 whereas the Rekhā Aṣṭakavarga is 368, both inclusive of Lagna’s Aṣṭakavarga. We notice that the total of Rekhā Aṣṭakavarga is 4 more than that of the Karaṇa Aṣṭakavarga, which implies that even though good and bad are almost balanced, mother nature is somewhat more inclined towards the good (Rekhā).
Om Tat Sat
